Spatial design
Designs how people experience, move through and understand a space, indoors or outdoors, combining architecture, interiors, communication and service.
What it deals with
A space isn't just walls: it is what people do in it, where they go and what they feel.
Principles
The path
Where people enter, where they pass and where they stop.
The place
What makes a place recognizable and its own.
Several disciplines
Architecture, interiors, graphics and service work together.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Draw people's paths before the floor plan.
Avoid
Designing the empty space, without the people who will use it.
Don’t fall for it
A space changes with the time of day and the number of people: test it at different moments.
Especialidades
Retail design
Designs stores and sales spaces to guide people, show the product and create an atmosphere.
Scenography
Designs the space of a performance, with its set, light, costumes and objects, with the audience in mind.
Methods and tools
- ApproachEvidence-based designMaking design decisions based on the best available research, and measuring their effects afterward.
Connections
Builds on
Authors and works
- 2015
Ian Higgins
Wrote a handbook of spatial strategies for students of spatial and interior design.
- 1960
Kevin Lynch
Showed how people build a mental image of the city from paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks.
Sources
Original sources
- Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. MIT Press.
Secondary sources
- Higgins, I. (2015). Spatial strategies for interior design. Laurence King.
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